Tej Kohli reviews the latest online Social Networking service launched by the search engine giant Google. Read the detailed review at Tej Kohli Personal Blog.
February 9 marked a new epoch in the history of social networking when the world’s most popular search engine launched Google Buzz, a new service the company is promoting as a ‘new approach to sharing.’
Integrated into the Google’s already popular gmail email service, buzz is designed to counter the increasing power of social networking sites like Facebook, and twitter, plus in an attempt to make Google a more central online venue for users.
Google launched this new service as a means of using its algorithmic might to penetrate the highly crowded social media infiltrating internet users’ online profiles. The service revolves around the idea of helping users organize their online activities in a better way.
“It’s becoming harder and harder to find signal in the noise,” said Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice president of product management during a launch event.
Google is rolling out Buzz to all gmail subscribers with a new tab which appears under the inbox tab within their gmail account. Google has also revealed plans to monetize buzz by integrating it into its business service.
How it works?
Buzz explores a person’s list of contacts and creates an auto-follow list of people they interact with regularly through email. It also allow users the option of sharing status updates with either all of their contacts or with a private group.
Users can also share links and see what their friends are posting to sites like YouTube, Flickr and Twitter while being able to access everything within their Gmail window.
Besides this, buzz enables people to send a direct message to someone using the twitter’s popular ‘@ format’. What’s more? Buzz also gives users posts and links to other useful content based on what their friends are talking about or the content of their own buzz. When anyone comments on your buzz the Gmail sends you an email which includes all the comments and images related to the buzz you’ve posted.
Users can access buzz through their cell phones in three ways – first, through the company’s standard Google mobile homepage, second, from a special buzz application, which is available for only iPhone and Android users at present and third, through Google’s mobile maps application which is available only for Nokia Symbian, Windows Mobile and android users currently.
If you’re using a Smartphone with built in GPS technology, buzz will geotag posts with a user’s current location and will also show the posts of other people using buzz in your location.
By introducing a service with more personal relevance for web users and which will encourage them to spend more time on Google’s sites, the company is expecting to play a major role in the social networking.
And as far as the question of Buzz posing threat to Facebook or twitter will depend on the users’ response this latest Gmail feature and how well it blends the experience between Mobile and Computer devices.
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